A Maine medical cannabis dispensary chain that was denied an Ellsworth business license in February, after products at its Waterville store tested positive for pesticides, has rebranded and submitted a new license application to the city.
Frank Berenyi, who owns the medical cannabis store chain, changed his dispensary’s name from “MarijuanaVille” to “M-Ville” on his most recent business license application, which will go before the Ellsworth City Council later this month.
The change follows the city’s recently adopted licensing criteria for medical cannabis dispensaries, which involve limits on signage with terms like “marijuana.”
The council denied Berenyi’s last license request after news broke that products sold at his Waterville store later tested positive for “unsafe levels” of pesticides. One product had more than 190 times the acceptable amount of bifenthrin, an insecticide.
As a result, state cannabis regulators issued MarijuanaVille Maine’s first ever patient advisory.
Berenyi has already bought the building — located at 71 Main St. — where he’s vying to open the dispensary. Boss Lady Genetics, the site’s current occupant who also sells medical marijuana, has a business license that will expire in May.
Aside from changing Marijuanaville’s name, the only other difference in Berenyi’s latest application is a new owner’s phone number and address, according to Ebony Kramp-Dowling, the city’s deputy clerk.
City Manager Charlie Pearce said he would present the new application to the city attorney prior to the council vote in late April.
Berenyi declined to comment on the details of his latest application but insisted that the advisory stemmed from a complaint the state received from someone with a “personal grudge” against him.
He said the contaminated products — which were concentrates — were manufactured by a separate company and sold to other stores as well, though MarijuanaVille was the only entity to be flagged by state regulators.
Berenyi said he was told by a state inspector that no one was hospitalized in connection with the contaminated products. The January complaint resulted from an “adverse health reaction from cannabis concentrates,” according to the advisory.
Since the advisory, Berenyi says he has started exclusively stocking his stores with lab-tested products — unlike his competitors. He can’t afford another advisory, he added.
In 2023, the state’s Office of Cannabis Policy published an audit of products sold at medical cannabis dispensaries across Maine. The study found that 42% of samples from medical cannabis stores had at least one contaminant that would have failed the mandatory testing required of the state’s adult-use cannabis stores.
While adult-use cannabis products are subject to strict testing requirements, there are no state regulations that mandate testing of medical use marijuana products. A bill currently making its way through the Legislature could change that, however.
The legislation — which would mandate testing and tracking of medical cannabis products — was first introduced by Rep. Anne Graham, D-North Yarmouth, in April 2025 and was later sent to the joint standing committee on veterans and legal affairs.
“Out of more than 30 medical cannabis programs, Maine is the only one that does not require testing,” Graham said during her testimony before the joint standing committee in May 2025. “This bill closes that gap. The required testing includes potency and contaminants like mold, lead, arsenic and PFAS.”
